Short connection time on trains

It's doable if the trains are on time. I had some really tight train connections in Germany, but there just weren't better options those days. I hustled, and in one case I had just enough to grab some fast food between trains, because the next ride was a long one. Look at whether there is a latter train after the ones you are trying to connect to in case your first train is late and you need to take the next one. In my case there just weren't good trains later so I just took a chance.

It looks like these are designed connections. The train from Oberammergau goes only as far as Murnau and it stops at the adjacent track. 5 minutes should be plenty. The train from Murnau goes to G-P and meets the waiting S-6 on an adjacent track. If there were a slight delay, they will most probably hold the connecting train until everyone makes the change.

Thanks. I feel better about booking it now. And really the worst that can happen is I have to get the next train.

Julie, if you are booking on the REGIONAL trains - like the R and S trains - for O'gau > Innsbruck then there are good reasons not to pre-book that €28 fare you see, which you can buy on the day of travel instead for the same price. That's the Regioticket Werdenfels + Innsbruck day pass (which can be used to return to O'gau that same day btw, if that's your plan.) This ticket is non-refundable if you should have to change your plans. While you could instead buy the refundable "Normalpreis" ticket at €28.20, there's no point - it too will be available on the day of travel at the same price and you will ride the same trains you'd ride with the day pass.

those connections are designed to be smooth as silk. Once upon a day the trains went straight through. Now it is segments meant to overlap. The physical connection is a matter of feet, not yards, and completely trivial.

It just means you need to find a new seat.

I think those connections are doable as long as you are prepared to move.

A train is not an aircraft, where you are told to remain seated until the craft comes to a complete stop at the gate. When the train is approaching the station, get up, collect your things, and proceed to the end of the carriage to the door. As soon as the train stops, open the door (the door will not open until the train stops) and get off. The people waiting on the platform will allow you to get off before they get on. If you stay in your seat until the train stops and people are getting on, you will be like a fish swimming upstream, fighting the flow of incoming passengers to get to the door.

You will probably have to use a connecting tunnel to get to your next train. Everyone will be using the tunnel too, so follow the herd. If you have used the Bahn website to find your connections, you should know the track number of your next train. If not, locate a schedule board with the mustard colored departure (Abfahrt) board. The train departure information is in blocks by time. Find your connecting train; the track (Gleis) number will be shown after the train info.

Go down into the connecting tunnel. The stairs to the platforms will be shown on numbered signs.

There are also buses from the Oberammergau station to Garmisch-Partenkirchen Hbf, and they take considerably less time than the train through Murnau. You might not get to Innsbruck sooner, but you will have more time to make connections. For instance, the 7:35 bus gets you to Garmisch-Partenkirchen Hbf at 8:15, leaving you with 51 min, time for coffee before boarding the 9:06 train to Innsbruck via Seefeld.

BTW, the nice thing about the Werdenfels-Ticket is that, unlike most day passes, it is valid all day long, not just after 9 AM. And it's valid for the buses from Oberammergau to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Here is the station plan of the Murnau station. Note that you will come into the stub track (4) which is not adjacent to the track (3) for the train to Innsbruck. You'll have to go through the tunnel to get to track 3. The 7:38 train from Oberammergau arrives in Murnau at 8:19; the connecting train from Munich doesn't even arrive in Murnau for 12 minutes (8:31).

We had a bunch of really tight connection times - some as little as 3-4 minutes! I did not realize this at the time of booking as I was just looking at departure and arrival times and the connection times didn't show unless you looked deeper into the schedule. Well, we made them all but it was very tense. The advice above to get to the door and be ready to run as the train is pulling in is good. Also if you are just day tripping you won't have luggage with you which will help. But if you have any mobility issues it could be a problem. We were really running for some of the connections. The few times the first train was late, the connecting one was also late so things worked out. You should be able to get the layout of the connecting station on their websites so having a sense of how big the station is, etc. will help. As I said, we made some 3 and 4 minute connections so 5 and 8 sound pretty doable.

If you are booking your tickets on Bahn ( German State Railways ) , after you put in your departure and arrival information , it will bring up a list of trains . When you pick one , there will; be a gray information icon just under the times ( on the left ) third one down . If you click that you will then see a line that says " adjust transfer time " that will allow you to extend the amount of time for your change .

If you click that you will then see a line that says " adjust transfer time " that will allow you to extend the amount of time for your change .

Of course, doing this you may find that you will have to wait another hour or more for the next train.

A prime example of this is the final connecting train to get to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. That train schedule is designed such to meet the trains at Steinach with a 5 minute change time. Want more time? Sure, just wait another hour for that train to return from Rothenburg. In fact, there is enough slack in the schedule so if there are people who need a little more time to make the connection, as long as the conductor of the Rothenburg train is aware of it, they can hold the train until everyone is on board.

First, I think that the 9 to 13 minutes that I see for the connection in Murnau is more than safe. The trip from Oberammergau to Murnau takes about 40 minutes and, baring a suicide on the tracks or equipment breakdown, should arrive according to schedule. In any case, if the train arrives a few minutes later in Murnau, I would expect the train from Munich to wait a few minutes to let people from the connecting train to board. As I stated earlier, stay with the herd. The conductor is standing on the platform watching people board. He (she) is not going to let the train depart while people are trying to board.

I wouldn't put much credence in the "change the connecting time" function on the Bahn website. It will allow for different connecting time with that particular sequence of changes, but does not give you other options. If you ask for a longer connecting time in Murnau, it will put you in Innsbruck with those connections correspondingly later, but it will not show you other options that might reduce the overall time.

As I mentioned above, you also have the option of taking an RVO bus from the bus platform in front of the Oberammergau train station to GaP Hbf. It's a lot shorter trip by bus to GaP Hbf (I've taken the trip). Taking the bus would literally give you time for breakfast in the GaP Bahnhof before catching the same train to Innsbruck.